The US Senate Finance Committee has announced the formation of a
bipartisan working group in an effort to begin exploring solutions that
will improve outcomes for Medicare patients requiring chronic care. The
Chairman and Ranking Member announced the initiative following a May 15th Finance
hearing on the issue and have appointed committee members Johnny
Isakson (R-Ga.) and Mark Warner (D-Va.) to lead the effort, which will
include seeking input from health care stakeholders. To aid the Finance
Committee in chronic care reform policy development, members requested
that stakeholders submit their best ideas on ways to improve outcomes
for Medicare patients with chronic conditions.

Comments...

This is very encouraging news indeed. I appreciate and agree with Candice Cotton's comments and fully support the position that is so well stated in the WOCN document as submitted to the Finance Committee. It is excellent to see this progress! I will do my best to share the latest development with as many as possible and will certainly discuss w our NW region board. We will be watching to see what we can do to help support this very important effort to improve care for our patients and control costs through prevention which appropriate compression can provide.